Our vision: The way ahead

Headmistress’ Introduction

It is now just over two years since I launched the Vision for St Helen’s to become the exceptional school in north London, and we have made impressive progress towards fulfilling our ambitious plans. The most visible progress has been with the improvements to the School’s buildings and landscape and, since I wrote to you last summer, we have seen the Junior School rise from the ground and School House undergo a radical refashioning. I am very grateful to the two construction companies involved in these projects for their considerate and professional approach which has enabled us to carry out these works with no disruption to the education of the girls. We have

now drawn up our proposals for the next stages in the improvement of the physical environment, and the improved facilities for the Senior School facilities will begin next autumn. Buildings and improvements to facilities are important because they provide the space within which every girl can pursue her dreams and achieve her potential. However we all know that the factor which makes the greatest difference to how she develops academically and socially, and how she acquires her skills and talents, is contact with committed teaching staff who are

passionate about their subjects and their profession, and who care deeply about the well-being of children and young adults. The realisation of the Vision has always depended on the contribution of exceptional staff, and we have done a great deal throughout the School to support staff in teaching outstanding lessons, providing exceptional co-curricular opportunities and providing thoughtful, proactive and mature care for each pupil. We have overhauled the English and Mathematics curricula in Little Saints and Junior School; promoted outdoor learning and independent play for the youngest girls; managed the transition to the new A Levels in the Sixth

Dear Parents

Form; and launched an exciting programme of academic extension including a successful initiative to encourage the girls to apply to the most competitive universities in the world, including Oxford and Cambridge. Beyond the classroom, the girls are participating in regional and national competitions – and winning them – and developing their leadership and team skills, alongside their musical, dramatic and artistic talents.

We are now setting out the next steps towards achieving the Vision by making further investment in the professional development of our teaching staff, offering a wider range of training opportunities and a salary structure which rewards and recognises excellence. In addition, we will be focusing on developing independent thinking and intellectual resilience in all the girls from 3 to 18, and encouraging an environment in which taking risks and applying knowledge are valued above always getting the answer right by ‘playing safe’. We will be investing in new facilities for sport and music, and will continue to work with Merchant Taylors’ School to provide the girls with opportunities to participate alongside boys in a range of challenging activities.

We have seen considerable growth in our network of Alumnae, pupils and parents this year, and will be seeking to strengthen and enrich this wonderful resource which benefits all of us – and most particularly your daughters

– as they begin to prepare for life beyond St Helen’s. The Development Office will continue to support the new Director of Futures as she leads our provision of first-class careers and HE advice which will enable us to prepare your daughters for the challenges they will face in the wider world.

St Helen’s enjoys an exceptional site in the heart of a warm and safe community; it relishes the opportunity to educate the young women who will provide society with outstanding leaders and who will be the keystones of their communities; it is fully committed to excellence in all that it does; and it creates an atmosphere and environment in

which intelligent girls can give free rein to their intellectual curiosity and allow themselves to aim for the very best. I am excited by the prospect of leading the School through the next stage of its development and towards achieving its potential of being the exceptional school in north London.

Mary Short BA (London) PhD (Cantab) Headmistress

Learning and teaching at St Helen’s continue to move forward and to respond to the needs of academically able pupils in the 21st century.

The provision for Mathematics in Little St Helen’s and Junior School has been fully revamped. Our expectation is that girls work at levels in advance of their chronological age, and the structure of assessment in this area means that teachers and parents know precisely where pupils are in their understanding of calculations and what the next steps are. Our approach to English has been

similarly reviewed, with a particular emphasis on writing, and the new scheme will be launched in these Sections of the School in September 2016.

We will look next at how languages are delivered and taught as we continue to develop a curriculum which is streamlined, co-ordinated, modern and exciting; this will be very much a whole-school initiative as we plan the development of confident, fluent linguists from the age of 3.

New linear A Level syllabuses have been successfully implemented, and valuable teaching time in the Summer Term of Year 12 has been protected to ensure that students attain the higher levels of thinking demanded by the new specifications. Plans are in place for the introduction of the second phase of reformed A Levels as we move to a fully linear model. We are ready to deliver the new GCSE courses which come on-stream in September 2016. Applications to Oxford and Cambridge Universities have increased significantly, as have the offers subsequently made.

Curriculum

Our aim is to encourage all our pupils to aim at the best university courses, and we are providing a rapidly evolving programme of preparation for the entrance assessments and interviews required by the most competitive courses.

Numbers of students submitting Extended Project Qualifications have more than trebled and we would like all students in Year 12 to choose to do an EPQ as it is first-class preparation for the study and research skills needed for success in higher education.

The identification of girls who are Able, Gifted and Talented across all three Sections of the School has been the subject of much thought and discussion. Our methods in this area are becoming ever more sophisticated. The key is that such pupils are stretched and challenged appropriately so that they achieve everything of which they are capable; our provision in this respect has been reviewed and enhanced – for example, we are beginning to develop a programme for our academic scholars – and this process of development will continue.

Outstanding learning and teaching requires excellent and committed teachers who are always looking to improve and to share best practice. With this in mind all the teaching staff now pair up to carry out informal learning walks twice a year during which pedagogical ideas are shared and tested. Annual lesson observations carried out by Heads of Department provide detailed professional feedback on the teachers’ performance in the classroom. The potential of such a process is enormous, and our next steps are to ensure that it is realised in full for the ultimate benefit of the pupils in our care.

Pastoral

The School’s aim for pastoral care is that every pupil is known and valued and that her contribution to the community is recognised and celebrated.

Class teachers (in LSH and Junior School) and form tutors (in Senior School) are central to the realisation of this pillar of the Vision. More regular tracking of pupil progress now supports regular mentoring meetings with individual pupils in Senior School, enabling the setting of

meaningful targets for development. The same tracking informs our dialogue with parents of pupils in LSH and Junior School about each girl’s progress, her successes and her targets. We will continue to work with learners of all ages to enable them to reflect honestly on their progress, celebrating their positive achievements while noting the areas for further development, and we will help them to use the support available to them (including their teachers and parents) in achieving academic excellence.

The School is committed to having a more open and effective dialogue with parents and pupils. The introduction of a skills-based reporting system and a single grading system across the whole School now provides pupils and their parents with a more detailed picture of their progress and clear steps for further improvement. Parents, pupils and teachers have provided some very valuable feedback on these new reports which will help us to refine the process further to ensure that all involved have detailed feedback at appropriate points. We are absolutely committed to enabling all girls to maximise their potential by understanding the stages in their learning. To this end, the girls in Junior School and Senior School will be given access to the School’s assessment criteria to help them see more clearly what they need to do to make progress in their learning.

St Helen’s takes its responsibilities with regards to explaining its decisions to girls and parents very seriously, and will seek to make more use of the various technologies available to it to ensure that all parents understand the reasoning behind the decisions it makes. Recent improvements to the School’s website and the introduction this year of the Parent Portal enable us to communicate quickly and easily with all, and we intend to make much better use of this in future. The Portal enables us to celebrate the success of individual pupils behind a secure gateway.

The Individual Needs Department has extended the range of screening tests it conducts at the start of each academic year to ensure that teachers have as complete a picture as possible of a pupil’s learning needs. The Department has also introduced individual pupil profiles, created in consultation with pupils and their parents, to ensure that if a girl has a particular educational need it is understood by her teachers. Teachers, through their mentoring meetings and discussions in class time, will continue to reflect with all pupils on their learning styles and needs, to ensure that the girls are properly prepared for the world beyond school where the focus is on continuing professional development.

The School is determined to work more closely with parents to prepare pupils as fully as possible for the social and emotional challenges they face outside school, sharing with parents by letter or though information evenings ways and methods for addressing the complex questions posed by increased access to the internet and social media. The School has also enlisted the support of external experts in the discussion of complex areas like Child Sexual Exploitation and Mental Health.

All members of staff – whether they are teachers or support staff – are dedicated to the provision of exceptional pastoral care for the girls.

Co-curricular

At St Helen’s we pride ourselves on the opportunities offered within our broad and extensive co-curricular programme for girls of all ages to extend and expand their knowledge, skills and experiences. From the ever-changing selection of Hobby Clubs in Little St Helen’s to Sixth Form institutions such as the Phab Team and Young Enterprise, all girls have opportunities to develop those broader skills of teamwork, leadership, resilience

and communication which will give them the competitive edge at university and beyond.

Our re-aligning of the PE Department under Miss Hurt as Director of Sport will give us the opportunity to build on our recent successes in netball, badminton and rugby in the Senior School, and to provide opportunities for girls to enjoy an even wider range of sports and physical

activities, whether socially or competitively. We are also able to develop sport within the primary phase, and hope that joining the Independent Association of Prep Schools will provide opportunities for us to develop a stronger fixture list for Junior School girls. Our ability to develop lacrosse teams which are more competitive nationally will be enhanced by the construction of an all-weather surface, due for completion in autumn 2017.

The opening of the new Junior School in autumn 2016 will itself enhance co-curricular opportunities for all members of the School community: we look forward to making the most of the new spaces for music, drama, art, Design & Technology, cookery and outdoor co-curricular activities which the building will provide, and in the longer term we will maximise the potential of the old Junior School buildings to provide a physical base for the Futures Programme and more spacious and up-to-date facilities for co-curricular music.

We will continue to work in close partnership with Merchant Taylors’ School to provide girls in the Upper School and Sixth Form with the chance to collaborate with Merchant Taylors’ boys in the fields of music and drama, and as part of our long-established CCF and Phab programmes. We will continue to develop our Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, and build on the initial success of the new Upper School Community Action programme to give St Helen’s girls the opportunity to make a real difference to our local community. We passionately believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to take part in life-enhancing experiences which enable them to discover the qualities and passion inside themselves which will shape their future. We are hoping to give opportunities to girls from neighbouring maintained schools to visit St Helen’s and to take part in STEM and sporting activity days as part of our community outreach programme.

Above all, we are committed to maximising opportunities for girls in all co-curricular areas – active, creative, academic and service to others – and to drawing upon the interests and expertise of our committed staff to deliver an exceptional co-curricular programme.

The opening of the new Junior School in autumn 2016 will itself enhance co-curricular opportunities for all members of the school community.

We look forward to making the most of the new spaces for music, drama, art, Design & Technology, cookery and outdoor co-curricular activities which the building will provide, and in the longer term we will maximise the potential of the old Junior School buildings to provide a physical base for the Futures Programme and more spacious and up-to-date facilities for co-curricular music.

We will continue to work in close partnership with Merchant Taylors’ School to provide girls in the Upper School and Sixth Form with the chance to collaborate with Merchant Taylors’ boys in the fields of music and drama, and as part of our long-established CCF and Phab programmes. We will continue to develop our Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, and build on the initial success of the new Upper School Community Action programme to give St Helen’s girls the opportunity to make a real difference to our local community. We passionately believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to take part in life-enhancing experiences

which enable them to discover the qualities and passion inside themselves which will shape their future. We are hoping to give opportunities to girls from neighbouring maintained schools to visit St Helen’s and to take part in STEM and sporting activity days as part of our community outreach programme.

Above all, we are committed to maximising opportunities for girls in all co-curricular areas – active, creative, academic and service to others – and to drawing upon the interests and expertise of our committed staff to deliver an exceptional co-curricular programme.

ResourcesIt has been a year of dramatic change across the school site and the two major building projects are arguably the most visible aspects of the School’s investment in its vision. The projects are both nearing completion and we look forward to moving in to the new Junior School and the revitalised School House this autumn.

The Junior School will, for the first time, enable us to bring the previously disparate elements of the School under one roof, greatly enhancing the learning experience for the girls. We will see them benefit from new ‘state of the art’ facilities, including the exciting and dynamic Discovery Centre.

School House will have an equally positive impact for the Senior School; new and renovated spaces for teaching and learning will be available and a smart new entrance will welcome pupils and visitors alike. The bright and airy cloister corridor will greatly improve the circulation and make getting to lunch a far more pleasant experience.

Our work does not end with these projects, however, and we know that we must continue to invest in the School’s facilities and infrastructure if we are truly to provide the enhanced learning environment to which we aspire. Our immediate task is to bring the soon-to-be-vacated former Junior School buildings back into use for the Senior School. This will take place in 2017 and, perhaps, early 2018 as we convert Mackenzie into a centre for the Sixth Form and Futures Programme, convert Lund into a versatile space for use as an Examinations Centre (freeing up the RBH and the Centre at key times of the year) and seeking to replace Claremont with a new purpose-built Music building. The replacement of Claremont has not been a decision taken lightly (and is still subject to planning permission), but the building is too limited for use in a modern day school, and the investment needed to make it so is disproportionate when compared to the cost of starting afresh and providing something truly in keeping with our vision for Music in the School. Of course, the decision to demolish the “temporary” classrooms between Lund and the Centre was a much easier one to make!

Beyond the work in the south-west corner of the School, we also seek to continue to improve our sporting facilities. Building on the success of the Airdome, the Climbing Wall and new athletics facilities, we hope to construct an All-Weather Pitch on the current RBH pitch over the summer of 2017. This will greatly enhance our ability to provide Lacrosse and other sports throughout the winter months, when currently the ducks often get more time on the RBH pitch than we do.

Although numbers in the School remain high and the School is financially secure, our resources are not without limits. However, the projects planned over the next couple of years are affordable within our current financial plans without the need to raise fees excessively or to borrow significant sums.

As you will have read in the masterplan document last year, we do have aspirations beyond the current projects,

but the planning of these will depend on a multitude of factors, including, very importantly, the amount of disruption we are prepared to accept.

Our Development Office is beginning to establish itself, building its networks with Alumnae, Parents and friends, and it is hoped that in time it will be an important source of additional fundraising to support our Vision.

Development

Over the last eighteen months our Development Office has been working to enhance the School’s connections and engagement with our wider community of Alumnae and parents. We have launched business affinity networks and hope to strengthen these to offer increasing support to our Alumnae throughout their careers. Our wide and diverse community will also provide connections for our

current cohort of ‘Girls in Green’ through the Futures Programme. These connections will enable our students to learn about life at university, and to explore the careers available to them.

In March, we hosted a successful ‘Futures Evening’ for our students focusing on careers in healthcare and

science, and we plan to host more career-focused events encompassing a wider range of sectors.

Our Alumnae Relations programme is evolving rapidly and is a very exciting development. Our new Alumnae publication ‘Profile’ showcases what our Alumnae have gone on to achieve, and we have a number of

reunions in place for year group cohorts, including an annual BBQ for our youngest and an annual tea for our longest-serving ‘Old Girls’. As we connect with more of our Alumnae, we are beginning to see an international dimension to our community and are in the process of planning international reunions to support our Alumnae who are living, studying and working abroad.

Our St Helen’s community has a proud record of supporting the School’s development throughout its history: from the 1930s when the School was one of the first to construct an outdoor swimming pool; through a period of modernisation in the1970s and 1980s; to the fabulous sports facilities completed only ten years ago. The support, motivation and inspiration of our community

is at the heart of everything we do. Looking towards the future, we are in the process of identifying our next fundraising priorities and with each individual’s help, passion and determination, we will be able to enhance our well-established standing as an exceptional school for all of those who are privileged to be part of it - past, present and future.

Communications

The fourth pillar of the Vision included the improvement of communication with the St Helen’s community as well as developing ways to encourage pride in the School amongst all who are connected to it. We have made great strides over the past year, creating more ways by which parents, both current and future, can keep in touch with news and information about the School. Our social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter have proved very popular and attract a great many followers. The next step is to expand our presence on video-viewing platforms and to offer further insight into the extensive breadth and quality of co-curricular activities enjoyed by girls across the School.

The new website was launched in June 2015 and the Parent Portal quickly followed in September. Both of these provide significant improvements in the efficiency of communication between school and home. We are constantly analysing the effectiveness of our communications with you, and are currently working towards a new integrated School Calendar, improving the website homepage and navigation, and making the necessary adjustments to ensure that the Parent Portal is a fully accessible and useful tool for all of our parents. Our new look Newsletter, launched in January this year, provides current parents with more relevant and secure information about their daughters’ activities and achievements at the School.

We are enormously proud of our pupils’ achievements and successes in so many areas of their lives, and we want to share these with their parents, their families and the wider world. Recognising what makes St Helen’s an exceptional school and communicating it to a local and national audience will benefit all who are associated with the School – be they current or past pupils, parents, or staff – and remains a priority for the Marketing, Development and Leadership teams.

St Helen’s School

Eastbury Rd, Northwood Middlesex HA6 3AS

Tel 01923 843210 Email: enquiries@sthelens.london

www.sthelens.london